Pino Struggles In Second Major League Start, Also Lose Santana In 6-2 Loss

While the Twins lost this one 6-2 while being overpowered by Garrett Richards and the Angels offense, I think the bigger loss was when Danny Santana came up lame on a double in the third inning. Watching Santana, it looked like nothing was wrong until he was halfway between first and second on what would have been a stand-up double anyway, when he suddenly started limping into the bag. Our first fear was that he pulled his hamstring, but later it was announced that he left with left knee soreness, which makes me wonder if he didn't injure a ligament.

Yohan Pino made his second career start and it was far worse than his first. While he did pitch a scoreless first inning, he still needed over 20 pitches to complete it, and then it started to unravel in the second. Even though Oswaldo Arcia put the Twins ahead in the top of the inning with a solo home run off Garrett Richards, Pino quickly coughed it up. Erick Aybar doubled, and following a strikeout from Howie Kendrick, C.J. Cron advanced Aybar to third with a single. This brought up Grant Green, who his a sacrifice fly to right field to tie the game at 1. It seemed like Pino could escape with minimal damage, but he walked Chris Iannetta, and then after a wild pitch he allowed a 2-run double to leadoff hitter Kole Calhoun.

It didn't get any easier in the third when Albert Pujols singled and then Josh Hamilton doubled. Once again it started with a sacrifice fly, this time from Aybar, and then Hamilton was brought home by a Kendrick single. The Twins had seen enough, and after the inning turned to Anthony Swarzak to finish the game.

While Garrett Richards did walk 5 batters in the game, that's misleading because he was definitely in control this whole game. Minus the Arcia home run, he never was in any serious danger and pitched into the 8th inning, and really his second run allowed only happened because of some shaky pitching by reliever Kevin Jepsen.

WP: Garrett Richards (8-2)

LP: Yohan Pino (0-1)

Studs

Oswaldo Arcia (1 for 3, BB, HR, RBI), Anthony Swarzak (3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K)

Duds

Yohan Pino (3 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 1 BB, 2 K), Pedro Florimon (0 for 3, 2 K)

ROLL CALL!